Announcement of Funding Opportunity School Year 2019 …

Announcement of Funding Opportunity

School Year 2019-2020 Additional Grants for the Expanded Prekindergarten for Three- and Four-Year Old

Students (EPK Round 4)

Application Guidance

Legislative Authority and Purpose of Grant Funds Purpose of Grant

Project Period

Chapter 53 of the Laws of 2019 appropriates $15 million for additional prekindergarten grants to establish new full-day prekindergarten placements, convert existing half-day placements to full-day, or create new half-day placements for three- and/or four-year old students, targeting the highest need schools and children within school districts. The purpose of Additional Grants for Expanded Prekindergarten for Three- and Four-Year Old Students is to increase the availability of high quality prekindergarten placements for high need children and schools within New York State. Initial period: July 1, 2019, through June 30, 2020.

In the 2020-2021 school year and thereafter, each grantee's award will be consolidated with the district's Universal Prekindergarten allocation as specified in Section 3602-e of Education Law, subject to an available appropriation in the State budget for this purpose and provided that the grantee has met all requirements of this grant.

Eligible Applicants

All public school districts are eligible to apply.

Due to the highly competitive nature of this grant, a strong preference for funding will be given to high need districts, especially those that currently do not offer a state funded prekindergarten program.

A school district is considered high need if it has a Needs Resource Index of 0.75 or higher, as most recently calculated by the State Education Department, or if it is a high-need school district based on the State Education Department's most recent calculation of the Need Resource Category.

Appendix F provides a list of the high need school districts.

Amount of Funding

For purposes of this grant, charter schools and BOCES are not included in the definition of public schools and are not eligible to apply. The New York State Education Department will award up to $15 million to fund grants for the 2019-2020 schoolyear.

Questions and Answers

Mandatory Notice of Intent

All questions must be submitted via E-Mail to PREKRFP@ by close of business August 16, 2019. A complete list of all Questions and Answers will be posted to NYSED Funding Opportunity Web Page no later than August 23, 2019. To assist the Department in planning for the grant review process and expediting the announcement of awards, school districts that intend to submit a proposal must submit a Notice of Intent via email to

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Application Due Date

PREKRFP@ no later than August 30, 2019. The Department will post on its website by September 6, 2019 a list of school districts that submitted the mandatory Notice of Intent to apply for these funds. Receipt of 1 original and 3 copies by 5:00 PM September 18, 2019 to: New York State Education Department Attn: Additional Grants for Expanded Prekindergarten for Three- and Four-Year Old Students (EPK) Office of Early Learning Room 319 EB 89 Washington Avenue Albany, NY 12234

Applications are also required to be submitted to the Department via

email to PREKRFP@. The file format should be in Word.

The subject line of the email should read as follows: Expanded PreK

RFP GC 19-021 and the legal name of applicant school district

Appendices

Appendix A:

Standard Clauses for New York State Contracts

Appendix A-1 G: General Assurances

Appendix B:

Statement of Assurances

Appendix C:

EPK Grant Calculator

Appendix D:

NYS Pre-K Self-Assessment & Quality

Improvement Action Plan

Appendix E:

Collaboration Variance Request

Appendix F:

High Need School Districts

Appendix G:

Relative Need Points, UPK Utilization Points, and

Preference Category

Appendix H:

Proposal Evaluation Rubric

The State Education Department does not discriminate on the basis of age, color, religion, creed, disability, marital

status, veteran status, national origin, race, gender, genetic predisposition or carrier status, or sexual orientation

in its educational programs, services and activities. Portion of any publication designed for distribution can be

made available in a variety of formats, including Braille, large print or audiotape, upon request. Inquiries regarding

this policy of nondiscrimination should be directed to the Department's Office for Diversity, Ethics, and Access,

Room 530, Education Building, Albany, NY 12234.

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Purpose

The purpose of the Additional Grants for Expanded Prekindergarten for Three- and Four-Year Old Students (EPK Round 4) is to increase the availability of high quality prekindergarten placements for high need children and schools within New York State. This competitive grant initiative builds on the foundation established by the $800 million investment in prekindergarten across the state.

Grant funds will create new full-day placements, convert existing half-day prekindergarten placements to full-day, or create new half-day placements for three- and/or four-year old students. A strong preference for funding will be given to high need districts, especially those that currently do not offer a state funded prekindergarten program.

This prekindergarten grant program will promote program quality by requiring grantees to adopt approved quality indicators within two years, including valid and reliable measures of environmental quality, the quality of teacher-student interactions and student outcomes. In addition, awardees must ensure that any such assessment of child outcomes will not be used to make high stakes educational decisions for individual children.

Studies show that children who participate in high-quality early education programs are far more likely to read at grade level and graduate from high school1 and that quality full-day prekindergarten programs in particular are credited with producing significant increases in student performance in math and reading for participating students by the second grade as well as decreasing the rates of grade retention.2 Research indicates that as much as one-half of the achievement gap is already established before students enter the first grade.3 Investing in high-quality prekindergarten programs has been demonstrated to have a positive long-term impact on children's life outcomes, narrow the achievement gap between poor and affluent youth, and provide benefits to children and taxpayers that outweigh their cost. High quality prekindergarten programs, especially those that provide full-day services and serve lowincome or high need students, will help those students stay on track to graduate from high school and, over the long term, significantly reduce costs for remedial education, social services, health and criminal justice programs.4 In addition, existing research supports the idea that early, high-quality exposure to multiple languages results in enhanced child language outcomes across each of the languages.5

Classroom Continuity

Children receiving full-day prekindergarten should remain in the same physical location throughout the day, whenever practicable, and the program should keep the same classroom

1 The Pew Charitable Trusts (2010). The Costs of Divestment: Why States Can't Afford to Cut Smart Early Childhood Programs. April 2010. 2 Ackerman, D., and Barnett, W.S., 2006. Increasing the Effectiveness of Pre-K Programs. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University, National Institute for Early Education Research. 3 David T. Burkam and Valarie Lee, "Inequality at the Starting Gate" (Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute, 2002); U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, "Entering Kindergarten: A Portrait of American Children When They Begin School: Finds from the Condition of Education" (Washington , DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2000); Nicolas Zill and Jerry West, "NCES 2001-35" (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2001). 4 Haskins, R. & Rouse, C. "Closing Achievement Gaps" The Future of Children. Policy Brief: Spring 2005. 5 Kovelman, I., Baker, S.A., and Petitto, L.A., 2008. Bilingual and Monolingual Brains Compared: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Investigation of Syntactic Processing and a Possible "Neural Signature" of Bilingualism. J Cogn Neurosci. January; 20(1): 153-69.

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staff throughout the day to help children develop a secure attachment with these significant adults. When consistent staff are available to children all day the adults become attuned to each child's unique needs and personality and can support, nurture, and guide the child's growth and development. The relationship between the adult and child fosters children's development of self-confidence and social competence. Self-confidence and social competence help children adapt to kindergarten and contribute to their success throughout their school years.

In addition to the relationship between the program staff and child, classroom continuity offers the opportunity for better relationships between the staff and families. This improves communication and partnership between the home and the prekindergarten program. Children who are in extended care, beyond the hours of full-day prekindergarten, benefit from a seamless transition which includes remaining in the same setting throughout the entire day.

Program Planning for Three-Year Old Students

Decisions about how best to support growth and learning during the early years should be guided by principles of child development derived from the predictable sequence of human development. It is especially crucial that districts planning three-year-old programs consider all aspects of key milestones, within each domain, of children's development and their impact for teaching and learning. The developmental domains include Approaches to Learning, Physical Development and Health, Social and Emotional Learning, Communication, Language and Literacy, and Cognition and Knowledge of the World. It is equally important that districts articulate why they will employ a specific strategy or plan and how it addresses the unique needs of three-year-old children. When planning for three-year old students applicants must align with the New York State Early Learning Guidelines (2012 edition) and clearly demonstrate the differentiation in learning needs for this age group.

Project Funding

The Department will award up to $15 million to fund grants for the 2019-2020 school year. In the 2020-2021 school year and thereafter, each grantee's award will be consolidated with the district's Universal Prekindergarten allocation as specified in Section 3602-e of Education Law, subject to an available appropriation in the State budget for this purpose and provided that the grantee has met all requirements of this grant.

Additional Grants for Expanded Prekindergarten for Three- and Four-Year Old Students (EPK Round 4) will create high quality prekindergarten placements for high need children and schools within New York State. Grant funding may be used to establish new full-day placements, convert existing half-day placements to full-day, or create new half-day placements for three and four-year old students. To be eligible for funding to serve threeyear old students, the district must have an equal or greater number of slots available for four-year old students.

Prekindergarten programs operated under this grant generally must operate 180 days per year, five days per week; however, in the 2019-2020 school year, awardees implementing programs must operate a minimum of 90 days. Year One grant awards for winning school districts will be based on the number of days in which students are to be served. The grant payable will be reduced by 1/180th for each day less than 180 that the program is in operation.

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For purposes of this grant, no school district shall receive an award of more than forty percent (40%) of the total grant funds. Further, no grantee may receive final payment that exceeds the total actual expenditures incurred by the district.

Awards under the EPK grant will be based on the number of new or conversion placements and on a school district's selected grant per pupil as set forth in Appendix C: EPK Grant Calculator. Award amounts will be calculated as follows:

? New Full-day Placements: The applicant's approved number of new full-day placements multiplied by twice the selected grant per pupil amount; and

? New Half-Day or Full-Day Conversions Placements: The applicant's approved number of new half-day or conversion placements multiplied by the selected grant per pupil amount.

Applicants must use the EPK Grant Calculator in Appendix C to determine the maximum grant request based on the number of new full-day placements, half-day placements converted to full-day, and/or half-day placements to be created and the adjusted grant for Year One based on the number of days the program will be in operation.

Grant funding must be used to supplement, not supplant, any existing prekindergarten programs.

Program Requirements

Chapter 53 of the Laws of 2019 establishes several requirements that school districts must meet or assure to be eligible to receive an EPK grant.

1. Length of the school day: Programs funded with this grant must agree to provide instruction for at least five hours per school day; 25 hours per week for full-day programs, and at least two and one-half hours per school day; 12.5 hours per week for half-day prekindergarten programs. Prekindergarten programs operated under this grant must operate 180 days per year, five days per week; however, in the 2019-2020 school year, awardees implementing programs must operate a minimum of 90 days.

2. Alignment with State Learning Standards: Programs must offer instruction consistent with

the New York State Prekindergarten Learning Standards for four-year old students, and

the

for three-year old students.

3. Inclusion of Community-Based Organizations (CBOs): Applicants must maximize collaboration with community-based organizations when creating new slots with this grant. School districts are intended to work in collaboration with high-quality community-based providers that demonstrate best practice for three and four-year-old students in prekindergarten. Section 3602-e of Education Law requires that school districts shall set aside not less than 10 percent of the total grant award to collaborate with CBOs for the provision of the prekindergarten instructional program to enrolled children. School districts should collaborate to the extent possible with CBOs to ensure consistent and efficient community coordination. A field memo titled Pre-K Collaboration Requirement provides more details about this requirement and is available at .

Potential CBO collaborators include existing providers of early care and education, licensed or registered day care providers, Head Start programs, nursery schools, special education

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